Out of the past: March 23

1993

Pending approval of the proposed $4.7 million bond issue by district voters on April 6, the Jackson school board has plans in place for the layout of a new middle school; the board accepts the tentative floor plan for the 84,000-square-foot building, to be located at the corner of Broadridge Avenue and Route D.

None of the three plans proposing boundaries for new Cape Girardeau voting wards adequately preserves natural social, economic and racial divisions in the city; that was the consensus Monday of the city's Zone Election Committee, which deferred action on the three plans until a fourth could be drafted.

1968

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The First Methodist Church here, a large, domed edifice, is destroyed by fire early in the morning in what is described as a $1,000,000 loss; city firemen answer the alarm at 2:48 a.m., and fight the blaze throughout the morning.

The Cape Girardeau office of the Missouri Pacific Railroad will continue its present operations, plus being a service center for four smaller towns in the area, should the Missouri Public Service Commission grant the railroad's request to close 36 stations in the state.

1943

Reporting at the meeting of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce last night, the civic improvement committee said the city has purchased one of the barracks buildings at the Delta CCC camp, and that the building will be erected just north of the swimming pool in Sanford Park; it will be used for Boy Scout activities and for other meetings.

The egg business is booming in Cape Girardeau County with production high and the demand and prices abnormally good; the price paid to farmers varies slightly, but on average is 14 cents a dozen higher than the normal figure at this time of the year.

1918

Mrs. Seth Babcock of Cape Girardeau, learns by telegram of the death of her brother, Col. William N. Reno of the U.S. Medical Department, who was lost from the USS Susquehanna on March 21; Reno had been an Army medical officer since 1898, having joined the service at the time of the Chinese Boxer uprising.

Joe Barenkamp, managers of the Capaha baseball team last year and an enthusiast of a municipal league for this season, sends out a call to all baseball players to report at the Fairgrounds Park tomorrow for a practice game; Barenkamp believes there is enough baseball talent in Cape Girardeau and the immediate vicinity to organize a four-team league.

-- Sharon K. Sanders